


Truth & Consequences

by thequidditchpitch_archivist



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Alternate Universe, Comedy, Drama, Post War, Romance, The Quidditch Pitch: Eternity
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2006-04-14
Updated: 2006-04-14
Packaged: 2018-10-27 19:01:50
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 13,721
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10814868
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thequidditchpitch_archivist/pseuds/thequidditchpitch_archivist
Summary: An outtake from chapter 80 of The Price of Love.What really happened when Ron and Hermione left Hogwarts with Mrs. Weasley after the battle in Hogsmeade? How will Ron deal with the Grangers discovering that he married their daughter without their knowledge or permission? Here's your chance to find out.





	Truth & Consequences

**Author's Note:**

> Note from Annie, the archivist: this story was originally archived at [The Quidditch Pitch](http://fanlore.org/wiki/The_Quidditch_Pitch), which went offline in 2015 when the hosting expired, at a time I was not able to renew it. I contacted Open Doors, hoping to preserve the archive using an old backup, and began importing these works as an Open Doors-approved project in April 2017. Open Doors e-mailed all authors about the move and posted announcements, but may not have reached everyone. If you are (or know) this creator, please contact us using the e-mail address on [The Quidditch Pitch collection profile](http://archiveofourown.org/collections/thequidditchpitch/profile).

  
Author's notes:

  
  
Well, I hope you all enjoyed the first installment of this outtake. To be honest, I’m not sure if there will be one or two additional chapters after this, but the story should be no more than three chapters long by the time it is finished.

  


 

  


A HUGE thanks to Emmilyne and Cassibill for all their help. You guys are the best. 

  


* * *

_ _

Warning:

__

This story is an outtake from the last chapter of The Price of Love. Strictly speaking it is not necessary to have read all 80 chapters in order to enjoy it, but there may be portions that are a bit confusing for those you haven’t. Anyone wanting additional information on the Coupling Potion that is mentioned can find it in chapters 28 &29 of the main story. Information on the Lànain ritual can be found in chapter 46 and the ceremony itself takes place in Chapter 48. 

__

Truth and Consequences

“BUGGER IT ALL!” Ron shouted after stomping into his bedroom and slamming the door shut with all his might. He knew that his mother would hear the resounding bang as it echoed through the lower levels of the house; he was counting on it, in fact. Oh, she’d probably try to play it off by pretending it was the ghoul in the attic, but deep down she’d know the truth. Everyone in the kitchen he’d just stormed out of would know what he thought about her and her underhanded little ploy. 

How could his mother do something so…

_So Slytherin_ , Ron thought, wrinkling his face up in disgust, because that’s what her plan was. It was sneaky and deceitful and all about what _she_ wanted. To hell with him and Hermione, their opinions obviously didn’t matter. Like it or not, the Grangers _were_ coming to the Burrow for dinner and one way or another, Ron knew that they were going to find out that he’d secretly married their daughter. He was doomed, and it was entirely his mother’s fault. 

_She did this on purpose,_ Ron fumed, knowing that his mother had deliberately kept her plan from him until it was too late for him to do anything about it. But it all made perfect sense now. Why she’d insisted that Hermione lie down in Ginny’s room instead of his when they reached the Burrow. 

__

She was trying to separate us so we wouldn’t have a chance to come up with a plan of our own.

__

Why she’d been so insistent about getting Charlie released from St. Mungo’s the instant the snake bite on his arm was healed enough to remaining sealed. 

__

She wanted him here to witness my humiliation. She wants him to know that she’ll do to him if he goes back to Romania and marries some girl none of us have even met. She wants all of my brothers to know what will happen if they try and elope, but Charlie especially, because he lives so far away and he might try and use that as an excuse.

__

Even the speech she’d given him that morning about how he had responsibilities to deal with made sense to him now. 

__

She wasn’t talking about the Aurors that were waiting to question us about Dolohov’s death and the destruction of Honeydukes. And she wasn’t talking about that mountain of paperwork we had to sign at Gringotts afterwards to get our inheritance. She was talking about this: Hermione’s parents. She’s going to force me to take responsibility and tell them everything we’ve done. This is her way of punishing me. 

__

“ **DAMN HER!** ” Ron shouted at the top of his lungs. He didn’t care if his mother heard him. Nothing she could do to him could possibly be any worse that what she already had planned. “ **FUCK!** ” he swore, reaching out blindly and throwing the first thing his hand landed on across the room. 

_Maybe if I make enough noise_ , he thought with a small degree of satisfaction as his battered alarm clock collided with the wall and splintered into pieces, _I’ll wake Hermione up._ _And once she’s awake, she’ll realize something is wrong and come looking for me to find out what it is. Then all I have to do is convince her to sneak back to Hogwarts with me before Bill shows up with her parents and this disaster of a dinner happens._

It could work. Hermione was of age. She could legally use magic outside of school and more importantly, she knew how to apparate. His brothers had spent a great deal of time during the Christmas break teaching her the proper way to do it. George had even demonstrated slide-along apparition for her. Ok, so maybe Hermione didn’t have her license yet, but that was a technicality. Of course, deep down Ron knew that Hermione wasn’t liable to see it that way. Not only would she nix his idea the instant he mentioned it, she’d likely come up with a whole host of reasons why they should stay and face the music with her parents. 

“DAMN IT!” 

There had to be something he could do; someone he could go to for help. The twins were out of the question, obviously. There was no way they’d give up the opportunity to sit back and watch him sweat it out over dinner. His discomfort would be the epitome of entertainment for them. His father wasn’t home yet and even if he was, there wasn’t much he could do to shield him. As far as he knew, Bill was still at work and when he got off he was going to get Hermione’s parents, so that left Charlie. Yes, Charlie was his best bet. He was the one that had ‘accidentally’ let it slip that the Grangers were coming for dinner in the first place. Thank Merlin for Charlie. If not for him, Ron never would have known what fate, and his mother, had in store for him this evening. He’d have been lured in by the smell of a home cooked meal and walked blindly to the slaughter. At least now he had a chance to prepare himself. 

_But how?_ Ron wondered. _The Grangers are Muggles. They’ve never even heard of the Lànain._ _Then again,_ he decided, _maybe that’s a good thing_. 

The fact that Hermione was Muggle-born had actually helped him rather than hindered him when he first suggested they perform the ritual. She didn’t have the same preconceived notions that people in the Wizarding world did regarding the ceremony and as a result, she’d been able to look at his plan objectively. Maybe her parents would be the same way. It was all a matter of perspective, really. They didn’t need to know how despicable the Lànain was. All they needed to know was that it could be used to protect their daughter. That it _had_ been used to protect her. 

__

They can’t seriously object to that. 

__

Of course even as he thought this, Ron knew that it wasn’t the protective aspects of the Lànain that the Grangers were going to object to. It was the rest of it; the part where he’d bound their teenage daughter to him magically; the part where he’d married her behind their backs using a spell that was so powerful that nothing, save his premature death, could release her from that bond against his will. _That_ was what they were going to object to. And really, who could blame them?

“I’m doomed,” Ron groaned, ranking his hand through his ginger hair before flopping down on his bed in misery. He had no doubt that before the night was over Hermione’s father would want to kill him. But once Mr. Granger understood the way the spell was designed; once he understood that murder was the only way he’d be able to get his daughter out of her marriage… well, _that_ might just be the motivation he needed to actually attempt it. 

Hermione’s father was a healer. 

_No, a doctor_ , Ron reminded himself. Hermione had mentioned that the proper way to show respect when addressing her father was to call him Doctor Granger.

Both of her parents were doctors. Teeth doctors, but a doctors none the less and those Muggle doctors were all a bunch of nutters. They cut people up with knives and sewed them back together again when they were finished mucking around with their insides. Merlin only knows what they did when they were messing with your teeth. There was no telling what Hermione’s dad was capable of doing to him and there were bound to be knives at the dinner table. 

_What was Mum thinking? Just because Hermione brought me back from the dead once, that doesn’t necessarily mean she can do it again. Not if I’m missing vital body parts, like my head._ _Although,_ Ron thought with a shiver, _that’s probably not the part of my anatomy he’s going to try and cut off_. 

“Come on, Hermione!” he groaned, jumping off his bed and pacing about the center of his small room like a caged animal. “Wake up already,” he said, trying to will her into consciousness. If he could just get her to wake up he wouldn’t have to leave the safety of his room. She’d come to him and that way he wouldn’t have to risk running into his mother in the hallways, or worse, the twins. Unfortunately Ron knew from experience that it wasn’t possible to accomplish something like that with sheer willpower alone. 

The Coupling Potion the two of them had taken didn’t work that way. The magical concoction had linked their souls and forged a bond so deep that they could sense the emotional state of the other at any given moment, but in order for it to work properly they _both_ had to be conscious and aware of their surroundings. And at the moment, Hermione was neither of those things, much to Ron’s consternation. 

She was sleeping in his sister’s room and as long as that was the case, she was cut off from him, which just added to Ron’s already considerable frustration. He didn’t like being disconnected from Hermione, especially when she was out of his line of sight. Some might call it paranoia, but it was really one of the draw backs of maintaining the bond that had been forged between them. They’d been linked for months and he was dependant on the connection. Now that the war with Voldemort had begun, Hermione’s emotional state was a gauge that Ron used to make sure that she was safe at any given moment. The same could be said about her as well, but she wasn’t nearly as overprotective as he was. She didn’t worry about him every waking second of the day.

_Just half of the day_ , he thought, _in between classes and homework assignments and worrying about Harry. Or any time I mention anything about going outside for Quidditch practice. Ok, so she’s just as bad as I am really, but the point is,_ Ron reminded himself _, she can’t feel me now and she doesn’t know anything is wrong._

But that was about to change. It had to.

“To hell with it,” Ron mumbled, making up his mind and moving towards his door. He wasn’t going to make it through this without her support. He didn’t have a choice, he had to go down to Ginny’s room and wake her up. Even if he ran the risk of running into the twins as he did it. 

_I have to warn her and more importantly_ , Ron admitted to himself as he closed his bedroom door and started down the winding staircase, _I’m going to need her help. The explanations are going to have to come from her. If I do the talking it’ll only make things… worse,_ he thought, his blue eyes going wide as he realized something was wrong and came to a dead stop on the step just above the fourth floor landing. 

“Shite!” Ron swore under his breath as the anxiety he’d been feeling instantly turned into mind-numbing, all-consuming panic. “SHITE!” he swore again even louder as he realized where the terror he felt was coming from. It could only mean one thing. Hermione was awake and she was in trouble. Ron knew it without a shadow of a doubt. He bolted down the next flight of stairs and hit the third floor landing on a dead run mere seconds before he heard Hermione’s scream. 

~¤~

“GET AWAY FROM HER!” Ron bellowed at the top of his lungs after bursting into his sister’s bedroom and spotting a figure stooped over the bed his wife had been napping in. But even as he shouted, the intruder reached for her and Hermione shrunk back against the headboard, jerking her arm away to avoid his touch. 

“NO, RON! DON’T!” she shouted when she felt his rage surge into her body and she realized what he was going to do, but by then it was already too late. Ron was too fixated on the man that had barged into her room to even hear her warning. He didn’t know who this person was or what the hell he thought he was doing and he didn’t care. All he knew was that this man had frightened Hermione and he wanted him away from her. Now! And with a mere thought, he made it happen. 

The instant the intruder’s hand landed on Hermione forearm, his touch triggered the magic in the Lànain talisman hanging around her neck and he was literally hurled across the room with a blinding flash of light. 

“DADDY!” Hermione shrieked in horror as she watched her father soar into Ginny’s wardrobe, which promptly slammed against the wall and then pitched forward to cover him after he toppled to the ground.

The word ‘Daddy’ was still ringing in Ron’s ears when Hermione threw off her blankets and scrambled out of bed. Her first impulse was to rush over to her father and help him, but half way across the room she realized that might not be the best idea. Not until Ron realized that he wasn’t a threat to her. If she tried to touch him again before Ron knew that, it would just trigger the protective magic all over again. “What are you doing?” she shouted, rounding on her husband instead. “That’s my father, you idiot!”

“Your father,” Ron croaked just before his heart jumped into his throat and rendered him speechless. Unfortunately his heart didn’t stay there long, it quickly turned to stone and plummeted to the depths of his stomach as he slowly realized exactly what her words meant.

He’d just attacked Hermione’s father. He’d used the Lànain against him; the same spell he’d used to prevent Death Eaters from touching her. He’d used it on her father; on a Muggle. He’d used magic, really powerful magic, against a defenseless Muggle. There were laws against that. _BLOODY HELL!_ He was a criminal, even if it was accidental. If Hermione didn’t murder him where he stood, his mother surely would.

“I…I didn’t mean to,” Ron stammered, turning his back on Hermione and rushing forward to help her dad. “I didn’t know,” he insisted, latching onto one side of the wardrobe and pulling up on it. He knew that he wouldn’t be able to lift it completely upright on his own, but he figured he’d be able to shift it enough for Mr. Granger to work his legs out from under it. “I swear, I didn’t know. I thought…God,” he moaned, “I’m so sorry. If I’d known it was you, I never would have… ”

“What in the world?” Arthur Weasley said as he hurried into the room behind his two eldest sons, both of whom had their wands drawn. “What happened here? Is everyone all right?” he asked, while Charlie levitated the wardrobe off Mr. Granger with his wand and Bill rushed forward to help Ron pull their guest to his feet. 

“I told you to stop!” Hermione shrieked at Ron, ignoring the rest of his family and directing her glower at him once her father was upright and she’d assured herself that he was able to stand on his own. “Why didn’t you listen to me?”

“No, no, I’m fine,” Mr. Granger said in a shaky voice to Bill after being asked if he was hurt. “Just a bit winded is all. What… what was that?”

“I… Wait, what?” Ron asked, turning away from Mr. Granger to gape at Hermione when her angry words finally registered with him. “No, you didn’t?” 

“I MOST CERTAINLY DID!”

“What happened?” Mr. Weasley asked again loudly. “We heard a scream.”

“Yeah,” Ron said, latching on to his father’s statement and using it to defend himself. “You were screaming. You were terrified. I felt it. What the hell was I supposed to think when I walked in here and saw someone leaning over you? How was I supposed to know it was your father? Why would you be afraid of him?”

“Because it was dark and I couldn’t see who he was when he first woke me up. But if you hadn’t overreacted, none of this…”

“OVERREACTED!” Ron shouted back. “You think _I’m_ the one that overreacted? You’re the one that was screaming. You’re the one that scared the shite out of me. I thought you were being attacked. I was trying to protect you.”

“From my own father?”

“I didn’t know he was your father. I thought he was a Dea…”

“ **RONALD BILLIUS WEASLEY!** ”

_Fuck_ , Ron thought, visibly cringing when he heard his mother’s disapproving voice. He hadn’t realized that she was there. She must have snuck into the room while his back was turned. And she wasn’t alone from the looks of it. When he spun to the left to face her, he noticed Hermione’s mum standing in the open doorway looking both concerned and confused, and just behind her in the hallway were his twin brothers. _This is just bloody great,_ Ron thought when he saw their identical smirks.

“Did I hear you correctly?” Mrs. Weasley asked harshly. “You’re responsible for this?” she said, sweeping her arm out across the room. Although now that Ginny’s wardrobe was back in its usual position against the wall, the odd bits of clothing scattered on the floor were the only real evidence left to use against him. “You attacked....”

“It was an accident,” Ron groaned miserably.

“An accident?” his mother repeated. “And what spell did you _accidentally_ use?” she asked, glancing down at his clenched fist clearly expecting to see him clutching a wand. Her eyes went wide and than narrowed menacingly when she realized he didn’t have one. “You DID NOT!” she roared in a horrified tone of voice. But even as she denied it, Molly realized that he had. It was the only logical explanation for how Ron could magically ‘protect’ Hermione without his wand. “You used the Lànain on a Muggle?”

“The what?” Hermione’s mum asked George, who was peering over her shoulder with a huge grin on his face. “Is that some kind of weapon?” 

“I didn’t know he was a Muggle at the time,” Ron said in his own defense.

“And that’s supposed to excuse you?” his mother barked back. “You make it sound like it’s perfectly acceptable to go around using the Lànain against any Wizard you like. Is that what you’re suggesting?”

“Well, yeah,” Ron admitted, but he wished he hadn’t after he saw the scowl his response produced on his mother’s face. “Any Wizard trying to hurt her,” he quickly amended, not that it did him any good.

“That _is_ part of the reason we performed the ceremony,” Hermione chimed in, sensing how close Ron was to full on panic and feeling the need to come to his defense. His discomfort was her discomfort after all. It was one thing for her to jump all over him, quite another for someone else to do it.

“Ceremony?” Mrs. Granger asked in surprise. “What ceremony?”

_OH GOD!_ Ron groaned in his head. _KILL ME NOW!_ he thought, looking imploringly at him mother. But there was no help for him there. Both Bill and Charlie looked sympathetic, as did his father, but none of them seemed to know what to say, so they remained silent as well. 

“Will somebody please tell me what’s going on?” Mrs. Granger asked, sounding more than a little aggravated now. “Hermione? What ceremony? What are you talking about? You aren’t making any sense.”

“Ron and I…” she started, but then seemed to lose her nerve a bit after glancing at her father’s concerned face. “We… we’re… um…”

_Bloody hell_ , Ron groaned in his head as he watched Hermione sputter and he realized she was just as afraid as he was. No matter what she said, she was worried she was going to disappoint her parents. She was so worried about it, in fact, that she was actually tongue-tied and that was something that almost never happened. _Then again_ , he reminded himself, _she just had all this sprung on her. She didn’t have fifteen minutes to fret about it like I did._ _To hell with it_ , he thought, closing his eyes and taking a deep breath as he struggled to summon his courage.

“You’re what, darling?” Mr. Granger prompted his daughter impatiently.

“Ron and I… we’re…”

“Married,” Ron finished for her. There was no point dragging this torture out with half truths and round-about answers. The quicker he admitted it, the sooner this nightmare they’d stumbled into would end and he just wanted it to be over. “We eloped. There I said it,” he muttered, staring directly at his mother. “Are you happy now?” he asked her. 

“ **YOU DID WHAT!** ”

“We got married,” Ron groaned, dropping his eyes to the ground so he wouldn’t have to see the Grangers’ horrified expressions. “We used an ancient spell and charmed talismans,” he rambled, reaching under his shirt and pulling the silver charm hanging around his neck up in the air for everyone to see, “to bind our selves together magically.”

“Oh, Hermione, no!” Mrs. Granger moaned, leaning against the doorframe for support. “Surely you’re not… pregnant,” she whispered. “You’re only 17. What were you thinking? How do you expect to support yourself if you don’t finish school?” 

“WHAT!” Ron shouted, jerking his wide eyes off his feet to stare at Mrs. Granger in stunned disbelief. His face went from beet red to stark white so rapidly that for a moment Hermione feared he might actually pass out. But no sooner had that thought occurred to her than Ron stopped sputtering and started shouting again. “NO! You’ve got it all wrong!” he protested loudly. “Nobody is pregnant and no one is quitting school.”

“We didn’t get married because we _had_ to,” Hermione cut in, sounding slightly disgruntled, “we did this because we wanted to; because we love each other. Ron only suggested we use the Lànain because that way we’d be able to protect one another. He did all of this to keep me safe. ”

“Safe?” her father asked, glancing around the room in confusion. “How could being married possibly keep you safe? I don’t understand,” he said, racking his brain for a logical way to explain away what he was being told. The Hermione he knew had always been so practical; so level headed. How could she have possibly done something so foolhardy? It didn’t make any sense. 

“Does this have something to do with that blasted war?” Mr. Granger barked at no one in particular. “I realize that you’re in danger because of us,” he said to Hermione, “because we’re non-magical and the Weasleys have gone above and beyond to watch out for you. Is that what this is?” he asked, turning to Arthur hopefully. “You’re all full blooded Wizards. Does having your name offer Hermione some extra bit of protection?” 

“Hardly,” Charlie muttered to himself. Anyone that would target Hermione for being Muggle-born was just as likely to go after the rest of his family if they got the chance.

“It doesn’t matter,” Mrs. Granger cut her husband off, “because it’s not legal. It can’t be legal. They’re not even old enough to…”

“Actually, Hermione is of age in the Wizarding world,” Fred announced behind her.

“It’s Ron that’s not,” George added with a chuckle. “He still has two months to go before…”

“You allowed this?” Mrs. Granger asked Molly in disbelief. “If he’s not of age yet that means you must have given your permission.” 

“We most certainly did not!” Molly responded immediately. “Ron and Hermione kept this from us as well. I only just found about it last night.”

“Then it’s not legal,” Mrs. Granger stated again. “If Ron is underage and he didn’t have your permission, than it can’t be legal.”

“Perhaps,” Arthur admitted, “that would be the case if we were talking about a typical marriage ceremony. But what they did is anything but typical.”

“Naturally,” George whispered to Fred, who sniggered.

“Humph,” Molly grunted, making it clear to everyone that she disapproved of the ceremony they had used. 

“It’s… difficult to explain,” Arthur tried again when his wife didn’t say anything else. “But as Ron mentioned, the spell they used is old. It was conceive long ago when age wasn’t as much of a factor. As long as the young woman wearing the talisman is old enough to display magical inclinations the spell will work. The charm must be able to tap into her magical potential, you see. That is how it…er… repels people. The two of them are joined together by their magic and Ron is able to tap into that connection and use Hermione’s power to…shield her,” he said, after taking a moment to hunt for the best word to use. “If he views someone as a threat, for whatever reason,” he explained, “he’s able to prevent that person from touching her, from doing her physical harm. As he apparently did with you,” he added regretfully.

“Yeah, sorry ‘bout that,” Ron grumbled, his eyes back on his feet. “I heard her scream and well,” he said, shrugging his shoulders as his ears became red once more, “you know the rest.”

“So… we’re talking about a magical union?” Mr. Granger asked. “It’s just their magic that’s joined?” he added. As long as it was only a marriage of powers, that didn’t seem so bad. “And you can do that… whatever it was that you did to me, to anyone trying to hurt Hermione?” he asked Ron. That could actually be useful and the fact that Ron would go to such an extreme to protect his daughter was actually comforting in a way. Hermione had always told him that the boys looked out for her, but now he had the bruises to prove it.

“Anyone he _thinks_ is trying to hurt me,” Hermione amended, “provided they’re male. And I can only do it for Ron if the person trying to harm him is female. But there has to be physical contact,” she explained. “It won’t block spells or anything like that. It will only prevent a physical assault.” 

“I don’t understand what any of this has to do with the two of you being married?” Mrs. Granger said her daughter. “So your magic is linked. Surely that’s not enough to constitute a marriage, even in a magical community.”

“Actually, it is,” Bill informed her. “It’s a magical union, but a union none the less. They’ve bound themselves to one another by forming a lasting magical connection. Ron, in essence, has laid claim to Hermione and she’s done the same to him in return. That makes it a form of marriage. Maybe not one that is legally recognized by your laws, but in the Magical community it is legally binding. I should know, I spent half the day shuffling papers around and seeing to it that the Goblins I work with at Gringotts shifted every sickle of their inheritance into their private vault. Trust me, if there was a loop hole in this marriage, the Goblins would have found it. They are nothing, if not thorough when it comes to dispersing money.”

“Inheritance?” Mr. Granger asked in surprise. “What inheritance?”

“Harry’s Godfather, Sirius, the one that was killed last summer in the Department of Mysteries,” Hermione replied, “he left both Ron and myself a little money. I suppose he thought it would make it easier for us to help Harry when we finished school.” 

“The gold was placed in trust,” Bill explained. “Until they were of age or until they were married, whichever happened first.”

“Leave it to Sirius to provide them with nice little a loop hole,” George chuckled. 

“You got married so you could get your hands on some money?” Mrs. Granger asked.

“No,” Ron replied indignantly as he glared daggers at his brother. He’d been worried about Mr. Granger’s reaction, but apparently it was Mrs. Granger that he needed to worry about. She wasn’t looking for logical explanations, she too busy jumping to conclusions.

“We got married because we _wanted_ to, Mum,” Hermione stated again emphatically. “Not because we had to or because we were trying to get something out of it.” 

“It’s the war,” Molly sighed. “The same thing happened the last time You-Know-Who was trying to take over. When people are afraid they’re living on borrowed time, they make rash decisions; they rush into things for fear of what will happen if they wait.”

“And we were right,” Ron stated, stepping closer to Hermione and reaching for her hand. 

“It’s all right,” she whispered, leaning into him as she felt the irritation he’d been feeling give way to anguish. “I’m all right,” she assured him, knowing that he was contemplating just how close he’d come to losing her. “And so are you,” she added, just to reassure herself.

“Even so,” Ron said, “if we’d waited, we’d both be dead right now. Neither of us would have made it out of Honeydukes alive.”

“Dead?” Mr. Granger asked, his eyes going wide with alarm. “What are you talking about? What he’s talking about?” he asked Arthur before either Ron or Hermione had a chance to reply.

“There was some trouble in Hogsmeade yesterday,” Mr. Weasley informed the Grangers. “Our daughter, Ginny, was taken and…well, perhaps it would be best if we all went downstairs,” he suggested, after glancing around Ginny’s overcrowded bedroom. “It’s a long story and you’ll probably want to be sitting for most of it. We can have a spot of tea before dinner and I’ll try and explain.”

~¤~

“God, that’s awful,” Mrs. Granger muttered sympathetically, reaching out for the steaming cup of tea that Molly had set in front of her before taking a seat on the small sofa in the sitting room beside her husband.

Normally she’d add a bit of milk to her tea before drinking it and occasionally even a dollop of honey, but there was no point bothering with the niceties now. It wasn’t as if she was going to taste the tea even if she did manage to swallow a few sips. She’d only picked up the cup because it gave her something else to focus on. Holding a cup of streaming hot liquid would keep her hands from shaking, and if not; if she spilled a bit the scalding burn would remind her that she was awake and the story she’d just been told wasn’t part of some elaborate nightmare. This was really happening. 

_No, it has happened, past tense,_ Mrs. Granger reminded herself. _The maniac trying to take over has retreated and we’re all safe, for now anyway._

“Taken prisoner?” Mr. Granger said, shaking his head sadly as he glanced at his own daughter, who had been in a very similar situation not all that long ago. “One of them actually tricked her into believing she was a student? But Ginny is all right now?” he asked. “You said she wasn’t seriously injured?”

“No, thank Merlin,” Arthur said in response to his guest’s inquiry. 

“Even so,” Mr. Granger mumbled to his wife, “she must have been seriously traumatized.”

“It’s just so awful,” Mrs. Granger said again, her eyes drifting to Hermione as well. If only the same could be said about her daughter. Those monsters had tortured Hermione when they had her. They’d hurt her little girl. She didn’t know all of the gory details, but she knew that they’d used some sort of forbidden spell to cause her excruciating pain. Ginny Weasley had gotten off easy by the sounds of it. 

“The boys had a rough go of it trying to get her back, but…” Arthur continued. 

“The boys?” Mr. Granger repeated in surprise. “Surely you’re not referring to Ron and Harry?” 

“Well, yes,” Arthur admitted, albeit somewhat reluctantly. “The two of them did sneak out of the castle to help. But I was referring to Charlie and …”

“We didn’t take Hermione with us,” Ron interjected as soon as he saw Mr. Granger’s expression change from surprise to disapproval. He knew that reminding Hermione of that fact was liable to hack her off a bit, but that didn’t matter. He could deal with Hermione’s temper easy enough. Right now he needed her parents to understand that he’d done everything he could to keep her out of harms way. “We purposely left her at school,” he stated, “where it was safe.” 

“And yet you claim that you _both_ would have died in Hogsmeade if not for this whole marriage spell you performed?” Mrs. Granger reminded him. “How’s that?”

_DAMN!_ Ron swore to himself. He hadn’t counted on Hermione’s mum throwing that back in his face. He could kick himself in retrospect. He never should have volunteered any information at all. Not upstairs in Ginny’s room and not down here either. Hermione remembered every stupid thing he’d ever said, of course her mother wouldn’t be any different. All he’d managed to do by speaking up was wedge himself firmly between a rock and a hard place. No matter what he said now, he wasn’t going to be able to please Hermione or her mum. No matter what he said, they’d both use it against him. 

“Well?” Mrs. Granger prompted when Ron fell silent.

“Um…It wasn’t my fault she left.” 

_Oh yeah,_ a voice groaned in the back of Ron’s head as soon as the words popped out of his mouth. _That was bloody brilliant._ He didn’t even have to look at Hermione to know she was glowering at him. He could feel the anger radiating off of her. _Rat her out to her parents and dig yourself in a little deeper, why don’t you?_

“You followed your friends to Hogsmeade?” Mr. Granger asked his daughter, but by the tone he used it was clearly meant more as a reprimand than a question. “I’m surprised at you, Hermione. I’d think you’d be more cautious after what those people did to you. I understand that you must have been extremely worried about your friends, but to sneak out all on your own… that was more than irresponsible. If this Voldemort chap is really as dangerous as we’ve been told,” he continued, obviously not realizing that he was supposed to fear the very name he’d uttered, “you might have been seriously injured. All three of you should have stayed at school where you belonged and let the authorities handle it. It’s their job to deal with situations like this, not yours.”

“Yeah,” Ron muttered under his breath before he could stop himself, “because they did a bang up job of finding Hermione this summer, didn’t they?” he continued, feeling both irritated and on the defensive.

“Fortunately,” Mr. Weasley interjected loudly, “we all got lucky and things worked out in our favor. Ron and George had a close call, as did Charlie, but the Death Eaters kept Ginny stunned through most of it, so she wasn’t aware of…”

“She seemed plenty aware when You-Know-Who was trying to kill her,” Fred grumbled from the opposite side of the room where he was leaning against a wall next to his twin brother. “And she was definitely aware of the fact that George took the spell for her,” he added, crossing his arms in front of his chest. “Ruddy bastards,” he mumbled to himself angrily. 

“They tried to…to kill her?” Mrs. Granger gasped in horror. Okay, so maybe Ginny hadn’t gotten off so easy after all. “My God!”

“But… if you were hit with the spell...” Mr. Granger stammered, staring at George in surprise, “…if they were trying to kill her…” 

“Why didn’t I snuff it?” George finished the unasked question for him. “I did,” he said point blank, “only Hermione helped Fred bring me back. Lucky for me, she’s brilliant and she worked out how to do it on Ron.”

“George!” Mr. Weasley shouted his son’s name in warning. 

Usually he left it to Molly to reprimand their children, but Arthur realized he was going to have to make an exception in this case. The stern look she’d given them hadn’t been enough to still their tongues. Fred had fallen silent, but George was speaking far too freely about information that needed to be kept strictly confidential. The Grangers, being non-magical, didn’t pose a significant threat and they’d never willingly do anything to harm their daughter, but even so, Arthur realized that he was going to have to modify their memories before the night was through. He couldn’t allow them to remember that specific bit of information. 

If, Merlin forbid, Death Eaters did managed to get their hands on them at some point, what the Grangers would willingly divulge would become a moot point. And if Death Eaters found out that Hermione had discovered a way to circumvent the effects of the Killing Curse, Voldemort would want to know how she did it. He’d put all of his resources into getting his hands on her again. Arthur couldn’t allow that to happen. It was his job to do everything in his power to protect Hermione, just like he’d protect any other member of his family. He didn’t like the idea of using magic against unsuspecting Muggles, especially her parents, but if that’s what it took, he didn’t really have much choice. 

“I’m only saying…” George said defensively as he realized his mistake.

“You’ve said quite enough,” Molly interjected, jumping to her feet so abruptly that her teacup fell on the floor and shattered. “Your father doesn’t need you interrupting. I, on the other hand, could use your help with dinner. Off you go,” she said, hurrying across the room and pushing George towards kitchen door. “You too,” she said, grabbing Fred by the arm and pulling him along behind her. 

“What are you doing?” Hermione hissed at Bill, when she saw him point his wand at her father for a moment, before lowering it over his mother’s broken china.

“It’s one of Mum’s favorites,” Bill replied, casting a repairing charm on the cup which caused the shards to reconfigure and melt together seamlessly. “I know that strictly speaking we’re not supposed to do magic in front of Muggles,” he said, dropping his wand on the coffee table while Charlie used his to Scourgify the stain off the floor, “but they’re not just any Muggles, they’re your parents and they’re part of the family now. They’re going to have to get used to it.” 

“Oh really?” Hermione asked, glowering at Charlie, who’d subtly Obliviated her mother when he was finished with the floor. 

What the hell did those two think they were doing and why was Ron so happy about it? Even if her parents did forget everything they’d just been told; even if they forgot all about them being married, all that meant was that they’d have to explain it to them all over again. 

“Well, I’m assuming that you and Ron are going to want to have kids someday,” Bill replied, both to shock Hermione into silence and to redirect the conversation to a safer topic. It wouldn’t do to start talking about the confrontation in Hogsmeade again so soon. It would be better to have the Grangers’ attention focused on something else for a while. That way the small bits of information that they’d just forgotten wouldn’t be so obvious to them when they got home and reflected back on the conversation. “Kids can do some pretty remarkable things without meaning to,” Bill continued, despite the horrified expression on his little brother’s face. “Did Ron ever tell you what Fred did to his teddy bear?”

“Shut! Up!” Ron hissed, unable to believe that it was Bill doing this to him. “Just… shut up.”

“I’m just saying that children in Wizarding families do some pretty interesting things, even if it is accidental,” Bill forced himself to continue. He wasn’t sure if his baby brother’s spectacular red complexion was the result of mortification, anger, or both, but it didn’t really matter. As much as he wanted to, Bill couldn’t let up on Ron just yet. He had to make it seem as if the transition he’d made had been a natural one so the Grangers wouldn’t be suspicious. “Magical accidents and kids go hand in hand and Hermione’s parents are bound to witness a few. They’ll be at a complete loss when it happens if they’ve never even seen the simplest of spells. What we just did was completely harmless.”

_Hardly_ , Ron thought, as he continued to glare at his eldest brother. Deep down the knew that Bill was referring to the fact that they’d just Obliviated Hermione’s parents, but he didn’t give a damn about that. _What’s he thinking reminding them that we’re married? And bringing up kids? Bloody hell, has he completely lost his mind?_

“All this talk about children,” Mrs. Granger sighed, “it’s a bit premature, isn’t it? This whole marriage business, I’m sorry, but it’s just ridiculous. You’re only 17,” she said to Hermione. “Don’t get me wrong,” she added, glancing around the room at the rest of the Weaselys, “we think Ron is a perfectly nice boy, but he _is_ a boy. You’re just kids,” she said, focusing her attention on her daughter once more. “You have two years of school left and a lot can change during that amount of time. I’m sorry,” she said again, “but neither one of you is old enough to understand what true love really is.”

“Oh, I’m sure that you think that you do,” her husband added quickly, holding out one hand as if he expected his daughter to argue with him. “I was young myself once and I thought I had all the answers, but I didn’t. There are some things that you just can’t learn out of a book, honey. Some things you have to learn through experience and this is one of them. You’ll understand when you’re a bit older.”

“I’m sure you care a great deal about Hermione,” Mrs. Granger said to Ron, when his brow arched ever so slightly and he stopped trying to hide his scowl, “but this is the first serious relationship either one of you has had. Everything you experience together right now is wonderful and exciting and new, but it won’t always be that way. Marriage isn’t all moonlight and roses. It’s something that you have to work at. Even the best marriages can be difficult and you’re both so young that…”

“That what?” Hermione asked, finally finding her voice. “You think we aren’t willing to stick it out? You think we’re going to throw in the towel as soon as things get difficult just because we’re young and it would be easier?”

“That’s not what your mother is saying,” her father countered. “She’s just worried that you might have…”

“Made a horrible, life-altering, mistake,” Hermione finished for him. “Well, I haven’t, so you can both stop worrying. I know what I feel _is_ real,” Hermione informed her parents. “And I know what Ron feels is real as well. You think I’m exaggerating,” she said, when her parents glanced at one another, “but I’m not. I know everything Ron feels. Right now he’s offended,” she informed everyone in the sitting room, “and I can’t say as I blame him.”

“And now he wants me to shut up, because he’s worried,” she continued, looking at Ron apologetically as she shoved his desires aside and concentrated on her own. Deep down she knew that it was wrong to open this particular window and bare a part of Ron’s soul to everyone, but what was a little embarrassment in the long run if it helped her parents understand. Ron would deal with it. 

“He’s worried about what I’m going to say, because he knows how I react when I’m upset,” Hermione said quickly.

She was afraid to stop speaking; afraid someone else would try to butt in if she gave them half a chance and she was done listening to what everyone else had to say. It was time they listen to her. 

“He’s worried about what you’re going to say in return,” she began to ramble, “because he doesn’t know how you’ll react and he doesn’t want to see us argue because it will upset me even further. He’s worried that you’ll never approve of him because of the way we did things. He’s afraid you’ll pin all of the blame on him, because I’m your daughter and it’ll be easier for you that way. And worst of all, there is part of him that is worried that there might be some truth to your fears. He’s worried that I might really wake up one day and realize I’ve made a mistake. He’s afraid I might outgrow him or that I might suddenly realize I can do better. But that’s never going to happen,” Hermione said, turning away from her parents and looking directly at Ron, “because there is no one better. There is no one else that will ever know me the way that you do. And you know that I’m not just saying that,” she said, wiping away the tears as they sprang in her eyes. “You know that I believe it with all my heart and soul. I’m sorry that I embarrassed you,” Hermione said, her own cheeks flushing as she finally allowed herself to share his mortification, “but they had to understand.”

“Understand what exactly?” her mother asked. “The fact that the two of you know each other well was never in doubt.”

“Ron and I didn’t just link our magic, Mum,” Hermione replied with a sigh. _She still doesn’t get it._ “We used a Coupling Potion to join our souls. There isn’t an emotion Ron has that I don’t know about, that I don’t feel for myself. It’s just like that ancient Greek Myth you read me when I was little,” she said, turning to her father, “the one in the _Symposium_ about the origins of Man. Do you understand what I’m telling you, Daddy?”

“That was just a story,” her father argued. “It wasn’t real.”

“It is real,” Hermione insisted. “As real as the magic that made it possible. I know that all of this is a shock for you,” she said after her parents had a few moments to process what she’d just told them. “I know it’s hard to understand, but you have to believe me, it _is_ real.”

“Ron is my other half, Daddy. He’s part of me and I’m part of him. Our souls are bound together and if you try and force us apart it will destroy us both,” she said with tears in her eyes, “just like it destroyed the people in the story. The despair they felt, the anguish and emptiness that overwhelmed them when they were separated, that’s real too,” Hermione admitted, allowing her tears to stream down her cheeks as her voice took on a haunted tone.

“I never knew that it was possible to hurt that much,” she said, her voice little more than a whisper now. “All I wanted to do was give up, lie down on the ground beside him and die, because I knew that was the only way to make the pain stop. There is nothing that anyone would have been able to do or say to make me go on, because part of me was already gone and I knew I’d never be whole again. The only thing that kept me going was knowing that I might be able to bring him back.”

“Bring him back?” Mrs. Granger cried out in alarm. All this talk about Hermione wanting to die scared the hell out of her. Any kind of love that was that obsessive wasn’t normal, and it definitely wasn’t healthy, not for either of them. “Back from where?” 

“Ron was seriously injured,” Mr. Weasley explained. “For a while there, we didn’t think he was going to pull through.”

“But…”

“Yes, I know,” Arthur continued, “it’s hard to believe when you look at him now. But he really had quite a close call.”

“I… I don’t understand?” Mrs. Granger said, staring at Ron for several moments before turning back to his father. “How did this happen? I don’t understand how Ron or Hermione were involved. You mentioned that they snuck out of school and went to Hogsmeade looking for your daughter, but are you telling us that they actually found her?”

“No,” Bill replied. “Ron was with Harry searching when he realized that Hermione had left Hogwarts.”

“Somehow he sensed it through their connection,” Mr. Weasley explained. “He knew that she was in Hogsmeade on her own, so he left Harry and the twins to find Ginny and went looking for Hermione instead. He found her in Honeydukes, but the two of them were ambushed by Death Eaters almost as soon as he found her.”

“He used the Lànain against one of them,” Charlie added. “By that time they were both unarmed and…

“Injured,” Mr. Weasley jumped in, wanting to direct the flow of information himself. “One of the Death Eaters had blown a wall apart trying to get inside and Hermione was thrown into one of the sweet displays by the blast. She was cut up a bit, but her wounds were mostly superficial. Ron was the one that was seriously injured,” he said, purposely misleading the Grangers into believing his son’s injuries were also caused by the explosion. 

“He was trying to shield Hermione,” Bill said, which was a true statement, even if it was completely out of context. 

“Fortunately Tonks and Remus were searching the village while all of this was happening and they heard the explosion,” Arthur continued. “Tonks is an Auror, you see.”

“A Dark Wizard catcher,” Charlie elaborated when the Grangers look at one another in confusion. “That authority you were talking about.” 

“Yes,” Arthur said, “And as you mentioned, she’s trained to deal with situations like this. She got the kids back to Hogwarts and into the hospital wing almost immediately. Madam Pomfrey is a wonderful healer. One of the best I’ve ever encountered, actually,” he said, purposely giving her credit for saving Ron, when everyone in the room, accept the Grangers, knew that it had really been Hermione’s doing. 

“This is all too much,” Mrs. Granger groaned, closing her eyes as she leaned against the back of the sofa and proceeded to rub her temples. “It’s just…. too much to take in all at once. I don’t suppose you have any aspirin?” she said hopefully after everyone else in the room had fallen silent.

“Any what?” Charlie asked.

“Aspirin,” Mr. Granger repeated.

“Never mind,” his wife said, realizing by the tone of Charlie’s voice that they didn’t have the foggiest notion what an aspirin was. “Hermione?” Mrs. Granger said, opening her eyes to seek out her daughter so she could ask her what witches took when they had headaches. “Where is she?” she asked instead as she realized both Ron _and_ Hermione had inexplicably vanished from the room. “Where did they go?”

“It’s all right,” Arthur said, after leaping to his feet and crossing the room so he could scan the Weasley family clock which was hanging on the wall near the sitting room door. “They’re about somewhere,” he said, breathing a silent sigh of relief when he noted that Ron’s hand was still pointed at ‘home’ and hadn’t jumped to ‘traveling’ as he feared. 

“Hermione was rather upset,” Arthur reminded everyone when he heard hushed whispers coming from the staircase at the opposite end of the hallway. “Maybe we should give them a few moments alone.”

“Perhaps you’d like a moment as well,” Bill said to the Grangers.

“Yes,” Arthur quickly agreed, “You’ve had quite a shock yourselves. It’s a lot of information to try and take in all at once. I’m sure you must be feeling a bit overwhelmed.”

“You want to talk about a shock,” Charlie leaned over and whispered in his brother’s ear. “A shock is flooing into the kitchen and catching the two of them going at it on the table.”

“Shush,” Bill hissed in warning, trying hard not to chuckle along with Charlie. It definitely wasn’t the time or the place.

“Come on boys,” Mr. Weasley said, motioning for his sons to stand up and vacated the room. “Let’s see if Mum needs anymore help with dinner. We’ll just be in the kitchen,” he said to the Grangers, before stepping into the hallway himself. “Open the door and pop in whenever you’re feeling up to it, but there’s not rush.”

~¤~

“Don’t cry,” Ron whispered, moving closer to Hermione and wrapping his arm around her shoulder as his father began explaining what had happened to them in Honeydukes. 

He was a bit hesitant at first. He wasn’t sure if it was a good idea to show overt signs of affection in front of Hermione’s parents for fear of making the situation worse. But really, could things possibly get any worse than they already were? 

_You could start blubbering right here in front of everyone,_ Ron thought in response to his rhetorical question. _How’s that for worse?_ he asked himself, trying very hard not to imagine the horrified expressions he’d see on Bill and Charlie’s faces if they saw him bawling like a baby.

“Please, Mione, you have to stop,” Ron whispered, willing himself not to give in to her anguish when he felt his eyes begin to burn. “I’m all right now,” he said, pulling her even closer and rubbing his hand soothingly over her back. “Everything worked out. Please … just… stop crying,” he whispered, fearing that any moment her emotions would overwhelm him and he’d make a complete arse out of himself.

_Shite,_ Ron thought, unable to do anything but stand there and stroke her hair as she hid her face against his chest to muffle the sound of her sobs. _This pain she’s feeling right now is all my fault_ , he reminded himself, instantly feeling guilty for worrying about how it was affecting him. _Well,_ he amended, _maybe not_ all _my fault. They’re the ones that keep talking about it. They’re the ones forcing her to relive every twisted thing that happened._

_‘What’s the matter with you people,’_ he wanted to scream. _‘Can’t you see you’re upsetting her? Isn’t it bad enough that she had to tell Shacklebolt all the gory details this afternoon? How many times are you going to put her through this?’_

Fortunately Ron managed to stop himself. Yelling at everyone and drawing attention to himself wasn’t going to help anyone, least of all Hermione. The adults were obviously too busy discussing their lives to pay attention to how that discussion was affecting either one of them. But if they were going to talk about them as if they weren’t there, Ron decided he may as well use it to his advantage. 

_To hell with all of them_ , he thought, tightening his grip on Hermione and steering her out of the sitting room while everyone else was preoccupied. “C’mon,” he said, avoiding the kitchen and nudging her towards the staircase instead. “You don’t need to listen to anymore of that.”

“But…”

“No buts,” Ron said softly, releasing Hermione’s shoulder and grabbing her by the hand so she’d have no choice but to follow him when he began to ascend. “Sit,” he said, stopping just before they reached the first floor landing and plopping down on the staircase itself. “C’mon,” he said again, tugging gently on Hermione’s hand when she didn’t immediately settle down beside him as he expected her to. 

But rather than do as told, Hermione stood her ground a few moments longer and studied him. Eventually she did let go of his hand and sit down, but when she did, she opted for the step just below Ron’s. As soon as she was down, Hermione pressed her back against Ron’s legs and wiggled against them until he parted them enough for her to wedge herself between them. 

_Okay_ , Ron thought as he contemplated their rather odd position. Why she hadn’t sat beside him, he didn’t really understand, but she was obviously where she wanted to be. She was already starting to calm down and Ron could tell that she felt more secure in this position. Maybe it had something to do with the fact that he was shielding her back with his body. If anyone came up behind them, they wouldn’t even know she was there. Or maybe she wanted to be in front of him. That way if Death Eaters burst through the front door they’d have to go through her to get at him again. 

That made sense in a paranoid kind of way. It was something he’d do. Hell, it was something that he _did_ do on the rare occasions when the two of them spent the night in the same bed. He didn’t sleep well when she was with him unless he knew that he was positioned between her and the door. It was stupid really and Ron knew it, but it made him feel better knowing that he could shield her with his body while they were asleep.

_Is that what she’s doing?_ he couldn’t help but wonder. _Is she_ _trying to shield me just incase? She just got done telling everyone that she’d will herself to die if anything happened to me,_ he thought uneasily. _Why go to the trouble when she can just as easily make sure they take her out first?_

“God, I’m sorry Mione,” Ron said softly, resting his chin on Hermione’s shoulder before enveloping her in his arms. “I didn’t realize it was going to be that bad.” 

“Neither did I,” she quietly admitted, knowing exactly what Ron was talking about. 

“I thought I was saving you,” he whispered, his voice was low but still laced with pain. _I never would have cast that spell if I’d known it was going to be this bad for you._ “Tell me you were exaggerating,” he pleaded, “that you were just trying to make a point with your parents. Tell me that you wouldn’t really give up. Tell me,” he said again, “even if it’s a lie.” _I need to hear you say it._

“I’m not going to lie to you, Ron.”

“Shite,” he swore under his breath. 

“You wouldn’t believe me even if I did.”

_True_ , the more logical side of him self piped in. It was difficult to tell a convincing lie to someone who could read your every emotion. _Besides_ , the voice reminded him, _if the shoe were on the other foot; if it was you that was left alone and Hermione that was…_

_NO!_ the emotional side of himself protested. _Don’t even think about that._

_If you can’t even think about it, then how are you going to live with it? How can you drag yourself off the ground and go on living in a world without her in it?_

The answer to that question was simple. He couldn’t. He wouldn’t. If anything happened to Hermione it would kill him. Maybe not right away, because he’d want to make those bastards pay first. But if the Death Eaters didn’t kill him, eventually his grief would. 

“It wasn’t supposed to be like this,” Hermione moaned as she picked up on what Ron was feeling and the overwhelming anguish she’d experienced earlier returned in full force. “The Coupling Potion was supposed to protect us. I knew there were reasons why people didn’t stay connected this long, but… I really thought we could make it work.”

“It did work,” Ron reminded her. “We took to potion to protect our souls and it did that. I’m sitting here talking to you, aren’t I? If it wasn’t for the potion you never would have been able to bring me back.” 

“But if I hadn’t been able to…”

“But you did,” Ron interrupted. “Why keep thinking about what might have happened when it didn’t? The Coupling Potion _does_ work. It’s just… we’re a little more attached than we thought we would be, that’s all.”

“That’s all?” Hermione repeated, turning around to give him a disbelieving look. 

“Ok, so that changes things a bit,” he admitted. 

Obviously it wasn’t going to be enough for him to just look out for Harry and Hermione anymore. He was going to have to watch his own arse as well. He couldn’t just react to things the way he normally did and that was going to be hard. He had to stop and think about the consequences first, because it wasn’t just their powers or their souls that were linked. Whatever happened from this point on, Ron realized that he and Hermione would likely share the same fate as well. There would be no ultimate sacrifice where she was concerned. He couldn’t give everything to protect her, knowing that she’d go on and live her life for both of them. If he made that kind of sacrifice, even if it was for Harry, he’d drag Hermione down with him. It was both of them or neither of them from this point on.

_That wasn’t part of the original plan_ , he told himself, _at least not my plan,_ _but plans can be revised. The question is how?_

“So what are we going to do?” he asked hopefully. 

“What can we do?” Hermione replied, somehow managing to sound far calmer than she felt. Or maybe she was just trying to resolve herself to the inevitable.

“We could sever the connection now,” Ron said without thinking, but just hearing the suggestion out loud was like a knife ripping through his heart. Even as he said it, he realized he didn’t have the willpower to follow through. Not even if severing the link now would be better for Hermione in the long run. The only way that was ever going to happen was if someone else forced him to do it. 

_Someone like our parents maybe_ , he thought as Hermione spun around to stare at him in horror. _But that won’t work either,_ he realized.

It was true their parents could separate them if they really wanted to. His mother could and probably would lock him in his room for the next two weeks if he asked her to. But what was she supposed to do after their connection wore off? She couldn’t keep him locked up forever and as soon as he was free he’d go straight back to Hermione and beg her to drink the Coupling Potion all over again and she’d do it. The outrage he felt pouring off her at the mere suggestion that they sever the link was all the proof he needed of that. 

They’d been connected for too long to go back to the way things were and they both knew it. He couldn’t give Hermione up anymore than he could give up eating or breathing. She really was part of him now. For better or for worse, they truly were in this together. 

“Stop looking at me like that,” Ron said uncomfortably when Hermione’s frown turned into a genuine scowl. “I didn’t mean it. You know I didn’t. I was just thinking out loud.”

“Well think about something else then,” she snapped, “because that is not an option.”

“I suppose I could think about what your parents must think of me right about now,” he groaned, “but I’d really rather not. I don’t suppose there’s any chance you’d sneak down to the broom shed with me so we could get the hell out of here?”

“We’re going to have to face them eventually,” Hermione said with a sigh. “We may as well get it over with now,” she added, despite the fact she didn’t really want to go downstairs anymore than Ron did. “At least the worst is over.”

“Are you serious? Between Bill talking about kids and Fred and George…” _Bloody hell, I don’t even want to think about what those two might have in store for us._ “…the worst is far from over, love. We haven’t even made it to dinner yet.”

“Then the sooner we go down, the sooner it will all be over.”

“Hold on,” Ron said, pushing Hermione back down when she started to stand up. “We need to come up with a plan first. We can’t just saunter into the kitchen unprepared.”

“Stop acting like a baby and get serious.”

“I am serious,” Ron protested even as he began strategizing in his head. _Telling Mum we’re not hungry isn’t going to work and hiding won’t cut it either. She knows all the good places. But maybe if we just eat really fast… That could work,_ Ron decided quickly. _It’s better than nothing and there’s an added benefit. If my mouth is jam-packed with food I won’t have to talk or answer any questions. It’s a win-win situation._ “I’ve seen you put your lunch away at record speeds when you want to get to the library. How long do you need? I bet I could finish in five minutes maybe less.”

“You are not going to go downstairs and embarrass me by stuffing your face like some half starved heathen. I thought you were worried about what my parents think of you. Honestly Ron, is that really the type of impression you want to make?” 

“No,” he grumbled, irritated with Hermione for being right. “What’s your bright idea then?” he asked. If she was going to nix his plan it was only fair that she come up with something better, even if it was on short notice. 

_Although knowing Hermione…_

“I suppose you think we should just go down there and take whatever they throw at us. Aw, c’mon Hermione,” Ron whined when her silence confirmed his fear. “There’s got to be a better option than that. You’re just not thinking about it hard enough. The least you could do is try.”

~¤~

“So you’re telling us that there is no way to undo this Lànain thing?” Ron heard Mr. Granger ask as he reached over Hermione’s head and started to push the kitchen door open for her. But when he heard what her father was saying he froze and shifted his hand onto her shoulder instead. It was a simple gesture, but more than enough to silently convey his intent to Hermione, who immediately leaned forward and placed her head near the cracked door so she could listen to the conversation taking place on the other side with him. 

“Witches and Wizards never get divorced?” she heard her mother ask.

“Not as often as Muggles seem to,” Bill replied.

“It does happen on occasion,” Arthur added quickly. “But the process is…. more complicated.”

“I’m afraid Arthur is right,” Molly chimed in. “I won’t pretend that I approve of the way Ron and Hermione did thing. Using the Lànain was…well, that doesn’t matter. The point is there is nothing any of us can do about it now.”

“Yeah,” George sniggered. “Don’t think they didn’t plan it that way.”

“As I was saying,” Molly said irritable after George’s laughter abruptly ceased, “The Lànain isn’t something that we can annul or dissolve for them. There isn’t a paper we can file to make it null and void the way you might in the Muggle world. It’s more complicated than that.”

“The talismans they’re wearing are what bind their magic together and they are charmed,” Charlie explained. “The only person that can take them off is the person that put them on. Ron would have to take the talisman off Hermione _and_ she would have to take Ron’s off as well. They _both_ have to consent. That’s the only way the spell can be broken and the union dissolved. And George is right. I think they did plan it that way. The chances of coercing one of them into doing it is slim. I already tried it with Ron, but he’s not a little kid anymore and I couldn’t intimidate him. The chances of coercing them both… I just don’t see it happening. They’re far too stubborn, especially when they can dig in together.” 

“It’s not just stubbornness,” Arthur said. “It’s obvious from what Hermione said earlier that this isn’t just part of some plan they’ve concocted. As far as they’re concerned, their marriage is real.”

“Hermione has been trying to straddle the divide between both of our worlds for a long time now,” he continued, “but the older she gets, the wider that divide becomes and we’ve all known that sooner or later she was going to have to make a choice. I can appreciate how difficult this must be for both of you and I understand that it happened much sooner than you expected. But anyone that has seen the two of them together for any substantial length of time could predict that this was where they were headed. The feelings they tried so hard to hide from one another have been fairly obvious to the rest of us for a while now.”

“Maybe it’s because we’re Wizards and magic is an intrinsic part of love,” Arthur said. “Maybe it’s a little easier for us to recognize the real thing when we see it. Then again, maybe that is just wishful thinking on my part. Molly and I married young, you see. We eloped during the first war and I can’t help but see a bit of us in them.”

“It’s not the same thing at all,” Molly disagreed.

“They’re younger,” Arthur agreed, “that’s true, but I don’t necessarily hold that against them. Sometimes you just know when something is right, even if you can’t really explain it to yourself in word.”

“Hermione is good for Ron, and in his own way, I think Ron is good for Hermione as well. Not only do they balance one another, they calm one another and it’s obvious that they depend on each other a great deal. They’ve had to deal with things that I’m quite sure I wouldn’t have been able to handle at their age. It’s unfortunate that their childhoods have been marred by Voldemort and that the struggles they’ve endured have forced them to grow up sooner than we would have liked. But they are mature beyond their years in many respects, whether we like it or not. If you treat them like children, yes Molly even you, they’re going to resent it. Charlie is right. If we try and force them apart they’ll perceive it as an attack and just dig in deeper. If they feel threatened, they’ll cling to one another even harder.”

“So what is it exactly you suggest we do?” Mr. Granger asked.

“There’s not a lot we can do,” Arthur replied, “other than accept the fact that this was their decision to make and be supportive.” 

“Humph!” 

“Now dear, you’re going to give the Grangers the wrong impression if you keep that up,” Arthur said, obviously feeling the need to explain his wife’s outburst. “It’s not Hermione she doesn’t approve of.”

“Of course it’s not,” Molly readily agreed. “Hermione’s a lovely girl. It’s the Lànain.”

“Molly doesn’t approve of the Lànain on principle,” Arthur explained. “She’d rather they have a more traditional ceremony; something respectable that she can invite half the Wizarding World to and brag about to the other half.” 

“Actually, I was thinking of a quiet ceremony with just the immediate family and a few close friends. I’m sure we could throw that much together by the time they have their spring holiday. It’s only a few months off and Ron will be of age by then so….”

“Don’t you think you’re getting a little head of yourself, dear?” Arthur interrupted. “Perhaps it would be better to ask them what they want _before_ you start making arrangements.”

“Yeah, Mum,” Fred agreed. “Besides, you’re going to have your hands full helping Bill plan his wedding.”

“There’s no way he’s going to pull it off by summer without your help?” George added.

“How did you two…” Charlie started to ask as someone else, most likely Bill himself, choked on whatever he had been drinking and started to cough.

“You didn’t seriously think that you two were going to be able to keep something like that a secret from us, did you?” Fred asked. 

“We hear all and see all,” his twin brother chuckled.

“I wasn’t trying to keep it a secret you eavesdropping prats,” Bill said angrily. “I was just…”

“Yeah, yeah,” George said rather flippantly. “You were waiting for the right time to tell everyone.”

“Looks like the right time to me,” Fred added, smiling mischievously when Hermione pushed the kitchen door wide open and stepping into the room with everyone else, leaving their stunned brother to gape at them all from the hallway. “We’re all here, well everyone except Ginny,” he amended as Ron snapped his mouth shut and forced himself to step into the kitchen as well. “But that’s probably for the best.”

“Bill, is this true?” Molly said when she’d finally recovered enough to speak. “You’re getting married?”

“To who?” Ron asked before he could stop himself. He was just so shocked that the question fell right out of his mouth. 

“Fleur Delacour of course,” Fred answered in a cheerful voice. “Let me be the second…”

“And the third,” George piped in.

“…to congratulate you on snagging a bird like that.”

“Seriously, Bill, well done mate.” 

“Fleur Delacour,” Hermione repeated, unable to keep the disgust she felt from coming through in her voice. _Oh that’s just great_ , she thought when almost everyone in the room, including Bill, looked at her in surprise. _Ron’s foot in mouth disease is catching._ _Now I’m going to have to back peddle and pretend that I like her._ “It’s just…I didn’t think you two had been seeing each other long enough for it to be that serious.”

“As opposed to what, the two months you and Ron dated before you eloped?” Charlie retorted on his elder brother’s behalf.

“TOUCHÉ!” Fred shouted jubilantly. But then he remembered that Hermione’s parents were in the room, which meant she’d probably let Charlie get away with it. Ron however, was a different story.

“We’ve been together for six years,” he shouted indignantly. Brother or not, Charlie wasn’t going to get away with trying to shame Hermione. “Just because you haven’t been around to…”

“Boys,” Arthur interrupted. “We have guests,” he reminded them. 

“Sorry,” Ron muttered, instantly embarrassed. 

“Guests?” George repeated. “They’re not guests, they’re family now.”

“That’s doesn’t excuse the lot of you for acting like a troop of circus monkeys. If this is the way you’re going to behave throughout dinner you can all leave right now.”

_HELL YEAH!_ Ron thought triumphantly when his short temper unexpectedly provided him with a way out. He was all set to grab Hermione by the arm and bolt out of the room before his mother changed her mind, when she spoke again.

“All of you expect Ron and Hermione,” she amended, but she was staring at Bill as she said it, making it fairly obvious that she wanted to add his name to her short list as well. 

_DAMN!_ Ron swore in disappointment. 

“Now, Molly,” Arthur interjected. “I’m sure that won’t be necessary,” he said, looking pointedly at the twins as he did so. “Ron, Hermione, take a seat while the food is still hot.”

“I apologize for Fred and George,” Molly said to the Grangers as her children settled down and started passing various bowls of food to one another so they could load their plates. “They’ve always been a bit….”

“Of a handful,” Mrs. Granger finished diplomatically. “Yes, we’ve heard quite a few stories from Hermione over the years,” she admitted, smiling ever so slightly. “They gave her a bit hard time when she became prefect.”

“I wouldn’t doubt it.” Molly groaned. “They gave everyone a hard time that year from what I’ve been told. Conjuring swamps in corridors and setting off spellproof fireworks in the castle to protest Dumbledore being replaced. A complete lack of respect, that’s what it was. Not that I approved of Dolores Umbridge myself. She’s a foul woman and had no business teaching children.”

“No need to thank us,” Fred leaned over and whispered to Hermione as soon as his mother’s attention was diverted. “We’ll just call it even, shall we?”

“Even,” Ron whispered, reaching out and nudging Hermione so she’d sit upright and give him a clear view of his brother. “How the hell do you figure that?” 

“She saved George, we saved you,” Fred whispered back. “Well, stayed your execution anyway. Mum’s all frazzled worrying about Bill and trying to play it off as if she’s not.”

“And when Dad takes the Grangers home,” George said quietly from his spot directly across the table, “she’ll be too busy confronting Bill to plan some elaborate ceremony for you two.”

“Think you’ve got it all planned out, do you?” Charlie, who was seated close enough to overhear the conversation, asked. “You got Mum, Dad and Bill out of the way until these two make it back to the safety of Hogwarts, but you seem to have forgotten about me.”

“No we didn’t,” George scoffed. “You not a threat. You’re too weak from losing all that blood.”

“Besides,” Fred added, “there’s two of us and only one of you.”

“I’ll show you too weak. Just you wait.”

“Forget it,” Bill chimed in, making it obvious that he too, had been listening. “They’re just looking out for Ron.”

“Don’t kid yourself,” Charlie argued in a hushed voice so their guests wouldn’t hear him. “You know as well as I do that isn’t why they did it.”

“Well, I’m going to pretend that it is for Mum’s sake,” Bill said.

“They just wanted to stir the cauldron and create as much mayhem as they could.”

“What’s done is done,” Bill whispered. “I owe Ron anyway, after that comment I made about them having kids, so drop it, Charlie.” 

“I’ll drop it,” Charlie mumbled, stabbing a potato viciously with his fork. “I’ll drop both of them right off the top of the house. Too weak my arse.”

~¤~

The rest of the meal was a bit of a blur to Ron. Fortunately the Grangers were seated at the opposite end of the table and his parents did a pretty good job of keeping them occupied. Even so, he kept his head down and did his level best not to make eye contact with anyone during the rest meal just incase.

How long the meal actually lasted, he wasn’t entirely sure. Ron glanced at his watch just before he started eating and when he looked at it again after he’d cleared his plate, no more than ten minutes had past. Ten excruciatingly long minutes that felt like an hour in and of themselves. Four minutes later, when he looked at his watch again, he felt Hermione’s irritation, but he was too busy fretting about how four minutes could feel like a bloody eternity to pay much attention. The next time he tried to glance at his wrist however, she made sure she got his attention. The elbow that jabbed into his side right above the spot where his rib had been broken was impossible to ignore and he immediately abandoned any idea he had about looking at his watch again.

The problem was he was finished eating and since he wouldn’t take his eyes off the table and he was determined not to pass the time making forced conversation with his brothers, there wasn’t a lot for Ron to do besides sit there and wait for everyone else to finish, which was thoroughly boring and took forever. 

Finally, when he didn’t think he could take it anymore, his mother stood up and started clearing the dishes off the table. Unfortunately when Ron jumped out of his chair with his own plate to make a hasty escape, she realized what he was trying to do and ordered him to sit back down. 

Ron heard George snigger as he reluctantly resumed his seat, but the laugh had barely passed through his brother’s lips before their mother rounded on him.

“OUT!” she barked. “Both of you,” she added, shooting Fred a stern look as well. “And if I catch either one of you skulking around outside the door so help me…”

“Don’t worry Mum,” Charlie said, rising out of his seat before either of twins had a chance to argue. “Bill and I will take care of them. Won’t we, Bill?”

_NOT GOOD!_ Ron thought, his eyes going wide as he watched Bill stand up and clasp Fred on the shoulder to ‘encourage’ him to do the same. If all four of his brother’s were leaving it could only mean one thing. The relative calm that had lasted throughout dinner was over and the storm was about to blow in all over again. _This is it_ , he moaned to himself, glancing at Hermione out of the corner of his eye. _Here it comes,_ he thought, dreading the questions and the disapproving looks he knew were about to fly in his direction. 

  



End file.
